The U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation will hold a hearing to examine the rule that allows many online retailers to be exempt from state sales tax laws. Based on the Supreme Court’s decision in Quill Corp. v. North Dakota, states are prohibited from collecting sales taxes from online retailers who do not have a physical presence in their state. As a consequence, local retailers who compete with online companies are at the mercy of a 6-10% price disadvantage, and state and local governments are deprived of billions of dollars in revenue. Bipartisan legislation co-sponsored by Chairman John D. (Jay) Rockefeller is pending in the Senate that would eliminate this price disadvantage on local retailers and would provide states with the ability to enforce their existing state and local sales and use tax laws in a manner that does not unduly burden e-commerce.